Banking, traveling, our caravan

Mama and I were successful in our trip to the bank in Lawton yesterday. Cathryn and Walter each napped in the car as we traveled. Cathryn slept on the drive over. Walter slept on the drive home. Both were well behaved as Mama and I signed papers to start our account with the bank and initiate the line of credit. The timing was perfect for me and Mama. I had invoices to be paid and was able to pay them before we left the bank. Once that was done, we went to look at our houses and again were disappointed by what we saw. On the good side, there was tile laid throughout the Dover house. Floors in the bedrooms were prepped for carpet. Little else has been done in that house. Both bathrooms are still stripped to the studs – as we saw them over a month ago - and the kitchen has not been touched. Oh well.

On the Aberdeen property, new garage doors have been installed and a partition between the two garage door openings has been removed. It now has the two-car garage restored. We could not get into the house so we could not see if any other work had been done. So, with that information, we set our changing jobs date out further on the calendar. At this rate, we will not be able to make the trip to Honduras in September as planned. I may have to wait until October or later to quit my current position, but that is not a huge issue. It is disappointing as far as our initial plans are concerned, but Mama and I are learning as we go. We were told to be patient. We are proving that advice to be well spoken.

Mama, the kids and I will drive to DFW this evening to get Maggie. Cathryn has not expressed a high interest in seeing her mommy, but Mama has built up the expectation over the past couple days to the point that both the kids are now excited to see their mommy. Walter has mentioned several times that he would like to go back to his city. I am still not sure what that means to him. But a couple evening ago, Maggie was doing FaceTime with the kids and Walter asked to see his room. Via phone they did an inventory of his toys. That was the longest conversation I have seen him engage in. Cathryn misses her cats but does not offer anything more than that. Next week they will all travel home. By the time they get there I am sure both Cathryn and Walter will be glad to be home.

Meanwhile, Mama will get Jake tomorrow. He will have that day at the farm. Thursday we will leave for Victoria, TX. We will meet Cori at the airport in Houston on the way down. Brittany, Andrew and the twins will arrive shortly after Cori’s flight. That is, if the girls recover from the sudden respiratory illness they are suffering from right now. If not, Brittany will come while Andrew stays home with the girls. Because of the number of people in this entourage, we will have to take two vehicles to get everyone and their luggage to Victoria. If Brittany and Andrew get to come with the girls, they will rent a car at the airport and join our little parade. I alerted Mama to the fact that we will be arriving in Houston at rush hour so the trip from the airport to Victoria will take longer than the two hours it would normally take. All this while traveling in a caravan. I am excited already.

Years ago, when we would travel through Mexico with a group from the Bible College in Houston, we would do so in a caravan. There were typically five or six cars in our group. We had dedicated mission stations to visit and selected homes to stay in as we traveled. Sometimes getting through the cities was a challenge. It often depended on who was leading the parade. Typically, only one of the drivers would know the route. The rest would follow. There were no cell phones. No way to communicate when we got separated from the group; which often happened when one or more cars got caught at a traffic light that the lead vehicles had raced through. I remember my dad being very frustrated by that. So, when I travel in a caravan and have to deal with traffic lights, I try to time it so we all make it through the light together or we all wait for the light together. Sometimes that is a challenge. We will see how that works out in a traffic jam on the Houston roadways.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow and traveling until Tuesday of next week. It will be interesting to see how much will happen during that time.